Hi EROFS maintainers,

As a prospective GSoC 2026 contributor interested in low-level
filesystem work, here's a small documentation improvement to
README.md:

- Added a prominent Quick Start section early for better onboarding
- Full beginner workflow: build → mkfs.erofs → fsck → erofsfuse mount → cleanup
- Compressed example + multithreading note
- Shields badges and upstream/community links

Patch attached (generated from my fork:
https://github.com/Aayushmaan-24/erofs-utils/tree/feature/readme-quick-start).

All commands verified locally. Happy to revise or split changes.

Thanks for considering!
Aayushmaan
GitHub: Aayushmaan-24

signed off by: Aayushmaan Chakraborty <[email protected]>


>From b50fd7d848bb3ad05080d3ded862d0bc74254b65 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Aayushmaan <[email protected]>
Date: Sat, 28 Feb 2026 14:50:05 +0530
Subject: [PATCH] README: Add Quick Start section with beginner-friendly build,
 test, verify, and mount guide

- Inserted early for better onboarding
- Debian/Ubuntu deps (Crostini tested)
- End-to-end flow incl. fsck success hint and compressed example
- Shields badges + upstream/community links
- No changes to existing technical sections
---
 README | 67 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 67 insertions(+)

diff --git a/README b/README
index 1ca376f..68a00b1 100644
--- a/README
+++ b/README
@@ -1,6 +1,9 @@
 erofs-utils
 ===========

+[![Last 
Commit](https://img.shields.io/github/last-commit/erofs/erofs-utils/dev)](https://github.com/erofs/erofs-utils/commits/dev)
+[![License](https://img.shields.io/badge/License-GPL--2.0%20or%20Apache--2.0-blue)](COPYING)
+
 Userspace tools for EROFS filesystem, currently including:

   mkfs.erofs    filesystem formatter
@@ -11,6 +14,7 @@ Userspace tools for EROFS filesystem, currently including:
                 as extractor


+
 EROFS filesystem overview
 -------------------------

@@ -49,6 +53,61 @@ For more details on how to build erofs-utils, see
`docs/INSTALL.md`.
 For more details about filesystem performance, see
 `docs/PERFORMANCE.md`.

+Quick Start: Build, Create, Mount, and Verify an EROFS Image
+------------------------------------------------------------
+
+1. Install dependencies:
+   ```bash
+   sudo apt update
+   sudo apt install -y autoconf automake libtool pkg-config \
+       libfuse-dev liblz4-dev liblzma-dev libzstd-dev uuid-dev zlib1g-dev
+   ```
+
+2. Clone and build:
+   ```bash
+   git clone https://github.com/erofs/erofs-utils.git
+   cd erofs-utils
+   ./autogen.sh
+   ./configure --enable-lz4 --enable-lzma --enable-fuse
--with-libzstd [--enable-multithreading]
+   make -j$(nproc)
+   ```
+
+3. Create a simple test image:
+   ```bash
+   mkdir src_dir
+   echo "Hello, EROFS world!" > src_dir/hello.txt
+   echo "This is a test file." > src_dir/test.txt
+   ./mkfs/mkfs.erofs test.img src_dir/
+   ```
+
+4. Verify integrity:
+   ```bash
+   ./fsck/fsck.erofs test.img
+   # Expected output: "No errors found" or filesystem statistics (no
error messages)
+   ```
+
+5. Mount and explore (using FUSE — no kernel module required):
+   ```bash
+   mkdir mnt
+   ./fuse/erofsfuse test.img mnt/
+   ls mnt/                # Should list hello.txt and test.txt
+   cat mnt/hello.txt      # Hello, EROFS world!
+   fusermount -u mnt/     # Unmount when done
+   ```
+
+6. Clean up:
+   ```bash
+   rm -rf src_dir mnt test.img
+   ```
+
+7. Compressed images:
+   ```bash
+   ./mkfs/mkfs.erofs -zlz4hc test-compressed.img src_dir/
+   ```
+   For compressed images, add e.g. `-zlz4hc` or `-zzstd` (or other
algorithms) to `mkfs.erofs`.
+   See the `mkfs.erofs` section below for advanced options (big pclusters,
+   multi-algorithms, reproducible builds, etc.).
+

 mkfs.erofs
 ----------
@@ -283,6 +342,14 @@ feel free to send feedback and/or patches to:
   linux-erofs mailing list   <[email protected]>


+Upstream and Community
+----------------------
+
+- Canonical upstream:
https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/xiang/erofs-utils.git
+- Discussion / patches: [email protected] (subscribe:
https://lists.ozlabs.org/listinfo/linux-erofs)
+- Kernel docs: https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/next/filesystems/erofs.html
+
+
 Comments
 --------

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